1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a virtual terminal server, a mobile communication terminal, a communication control system, and a communication control method for providing a communication service using a mobile communication terminal such as a communication service for providing mutual communication between a plurality of terminals in a communication network.
2. Description of the Related Art
In the mobile communication, a communication control message corresponding to a communication service (communication function) is transmitted and received between mobile communication terminals, and a communication path between the terminals is set to allow communication between the mobile communication terminals.
JP 2005-277654 A describes a communication control system between mobile communication terminals using a virtual terminal device.
The communication control system described in JP 2005-277654 A includes a mobile communication terminal connected to an audio network and the data network, a virtual terminal device connected to the audio network and the data network, and a communication partner device connected to the virtual terminal device.
The virtual terminal device includes: application processing means for interpreting user data received from the communication partner device and distributing the data into an audio signal and an image signal; virtual screen means for developing the image signal on a virtual screen; and synchronization processing means for providing a synchronization signal to the audio signal and the image signal, transmitting the audio signal to the audio network, and transmitting the image signal to the data network.
The mobile communication terminal includes synchronization processing means for synchronizing the audio signal received through the audio network and the image signal received through the data network, audio device means for producing sound of the audio signal, and image device means for displaying the image signal.
The mobile communication terminal further includes input device means for acquiring an operation of the user and input processing means for transmitting the operation to the data network as an input signal.
The virtual terminal device further includes input processing means for informing the operation that can be obtained from the input signal to the application processing means. The application processing means is designed to interpret the operation and request user data to the communication partner device.
In this way, the conventional technique is intended to suppress the processing load in the mobile communication terminal.
In the conventional technique, an application processing unit that processes an audio signal and an image signal is installed in the virtual terminal device, whereas the application processing unit is usually included in the mobile communication terminal. Instead, the synchronization processing means is installed in both of the mobile communication terminal and the virtual terminal device to allow processing of the audio signal and the image signal.
Thus, in the conventional technique, the application processing unit that processes the audio signal and the image signal and that is usually required to be installed in the mobile communication terminal is simply installed in the virtual terminal device to reduce the processing load of the mobile communication terminal. Therefore, in the conventional technique, an application for providing additional services of various communication functions is not installed in the virtual terminal.
When providing a service including a new communication function, transmission and reception of a communication control message corresponding to the service is necessary between the mobile communication terminals. A corresponding screen display format or the like also needs to be prepared in the mobile communication terminal. Therefore, in general, the new function is definitely required in the mobile communication terminal to provide the new service. The new service cannot be provided to the conventional mobile communication terminal which does not include the function.
Even in the conventional technique, an additional function of the mobile communication terminal is needed to provide a new communication service.